One way or another
by Ixi-Nox
Summary: Eventually, all your friends find their ways away, whether it's an hour and some minutes away or on the other side of the world.


"So you're actually leaving."

"Yup." Craig draws a little spiral in the dirt next to him. The sun's finally out. Neither is wearing shorts, but it's certainly warm enough to.

"To Finland."

"Yup."

"In twenty-one hours." Kenny looks over to him as he says this, and Craig's eyes slide away. The blonde uproots a weed and throws it towards Stark's Pond.

"Twenty-one hours," Craig sighs.

"So when do you have to be at the airport?" Kenny's asked this before, but Craig doesn't mind answering again.

"Well, they say an hour and a half prior to international flights. So I should be there at seven thirty."

"Plus the drive to Denver."

"Plus the drive to Denver," Craig repeats.

"That's an early morning."

"Not really."

They don't say anything else for a while. On the other side of the pond, there are a few kids who look like they're a year or two short of high school. They're all in swim shorts, daring each other to go in. Stark's Pond is not an ideal swimming area, but it's the closest thing to a lake than anything else in South Park. It's always cold, for one thing. For another, it's not so much a pond more than a glorified puddle. The very deepest part is about seven feet, and you can walk around the entire thing in under ten minutes. Craig likes it better as a hangout rather than a swimming pool.

"A year is a fucking long time to be gone," Kenny says finally. He had been rolling the sentence around in his head for a while, wondering how to say _I don't want you to go_ without sounding stupid. Craig lifts his head and smiles a little bit.

"That's the point. It's not worth it if it's only a couple of weeks."

Kenny smiles back sadly and says, "I kind of wish I had thought to apply for exchange, it would have been fun."

"I'm looking forward to it, really."

"How's your Finnish?" Kenny asks, looking at him and smirking knowingly.

Craig hesitates for a second. "Minun suomenkielen taitoni on huono."

Kenny's grin grows. "Sorry?"

"My Finnish is bad," he translates.

"So you are learning something."

"Off the internet, yeah. I wanted to know some basics before I go," he confesses. "I don't even know if I'm saying anything right, because all I know is from YouTube videos."

"You'll be fine." There's nearly half a minute of silence before Kenny asks, "You done all your packing yet?"

"Of course. It'd be kind of sad if I hadn't, being twenty-one hours from leaving. You don't have to worry about me, Ken." Kenny's cheeks turn pink upon being caught. This doesn't go unnoticed by Craig, but he spares Kenny's dignity and looks to the side.

"I'm gonna miss Colorado," Craig admits, sighing. "I guess I'll miss my family, and Stripe, and my friends, and you," Kenny looks away and bites his lip until it goes numb, "and I'll probably find a shitload of other things to miss too, but that's all I can think of right now."

For a while, Craig just looks at the kids skirting around the water, occasionally sticking a foot in and shrieking, and Kenny just looks at Craig, wondering why he didn't just lump him into friends instead of giving him his own category. For a minute, he almost thinks it's endearing and that maybe he should say something until he realizes that Craig probably said that because Kenny's right here, and likes him enough to say he'll miss him specifically. As in friends. As in hanging out together.

"Fuck, what the hell am I gonna do while you're gone?" Kenny mutters, well aware of how fucking gay that sounds, but it's true; Stan's heading off to Boulder to go to college, Kyle's going to Harvard, Cartman's getting a business degree, and now here he is, in South Park, nearly alone. And now Craig's heading off too. But it's not like Stan, where he can drive down to Boulder and visit him, or Kyle, who'll come home for Christmas and summer, or Cartman, who'll come home as much as he can. Craig is going to the other side of the world.

"I don't know. I'd stow you away if I could," he says with a slight smile. Kenny sighs and shrugs.

They spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around town, Kenny on the sidelines while Craig says goodbye to anyone who happens to know him. In the evening, Kenny follows him home and stays there for a few minutes before Craig's mom chases him out, saying that Craig still has some packing to do. He doesn't know whether that's true or not, but he walks out onto the porch anyway and sits on the top step. Craig follows him out after a bit and stands next to him.

"I don't actually have anything else to do," he says. "She's just pissed that I spent my last day at home hanging out with you."

"Well, I think she's pretty justified. I mean, you're her first kid and you're going across the entire world. Emotions and shit." Normal Kenny wouldn't say that. He'd say _but you love me moooooore,_ cheeky grin included.

"You're acting weird, Ken."

"I'm acting fucking weird?" Kenny snaps, catching Craig off-guard. "The last fucking friend I have in this town is going to Finland for an entire fucking year, and I'm not as _cheerful_ as you want me to be?" Craig blinks at him. The blonde sighs deeply, as he's been doing all day. "Look, I'm going to miss you, okay?"

Craig still doesn't say anything, mostly because he doesn't know what to say, but when he does speak he says, "I'm sorry."

"That's pathetic, Craig. Don't apologize for going off and having a life-changing experience just because some asshole back home doesn't want you to leave."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to say?" Craig retorts sharply.

"Nothing. Look, I don't want to fucking argue on your last day home. I'll stop being pathetic if you'll stop being pathetic," Kenny mumbles. Though he wouldn't mind a fight right now, he knows it's too easier for him and Craig to fight, because their personalities rub against each other quite willingly, and they're both easily provoked.

Craig sits down next to him and they share a sort of quiet sulk for a few minutes.

Ruby opens the door and sticks her head out. "Hey, Craig," she says, and the first indication that she's figuring out the gravity of the situation is that she called him Craig as opposed to some depreciating name. "Supper's ready."

"Thanks, Roo," he answers, waving her back in. The door shuts, and both boys stand up.

"So, I guess I should say my goodbyes now," Kenny says, and Craig nods. "Well, then. Have a good time in Finland, learn Finnish, write blog posts, drink booze, look at stuff, I don't know, I'm rambling now. Have fun, man."

"I will," Craig says, almost promises.

A beat of awkward silence. "Fuck, I want a totally non-homo hug," Kenny whines. Craig smirks, and they hug in an entirely masculine and heterosexual way.

"See you later, dude," Kenny says, waving.

"Bye," Craig answers. He watches Kenny walk until he can't see him anymore, and then he goes inside.

The next morning, Kenny wakes up late and realizes that it's eleven. He had planned to wake up earlier and watch the clock so he could sort of see Craig off. But, by now Craig has been in the air for a good two hours. Kenny lies back down on his bed and curls up tightly, trying to ignore the feeling in his stomach. It's not so much grief more than the feeling of having watched something of his being taken away, and knowing that there's nothing in the world he could have done to stop it.

"I'm so unrequited." The sound disappears into thin air. He hopes it went out his window and found Craig's plane.


End file.
